The Global Campaign Against Female Genital Mutilation Continues

Because FGM is perceived as an "Islamic" problem, the struggle against it must be led by Muslims, to remove the stain of this ongoing scandal from our religion. "There is no mention of it in the holy Quran." The suffering inflicted young girls has no religious or medical justification, and should be wiped out wherever it is encountered.

A global campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation [FGM], often misnamed "female circumcision," continues. While foreign NGOs have made Iraqi Kurdistan a center of the effort to do away with this practice, many observers have argued that it is not a "Kurdish" problem.

FGM is also not just a "Muslim" phenomenon. However widespread it may be among Iraqi Sunni Kurds, its acceptance in Islam is limited. According to the German relief organization WADI [The Association for Crisis Assistance and Development Co-operation], in the four provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan, only the farthest north, Dohuk, which borders on Turkey, shows little evidence of FGM at any age. Among the remaining three "governorates," in the province of Erbil, named for the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), 63% of women have undergone the atrocious custom; in Suleymaniya, 78%; and in Garmyan/New Kirkuk, the southernmost, 81%.

A WADI report on FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan, issued in 2010, stated that in the oldest age ranges – women between 50 and 80 years old – 80 to 95% of a statistical sample had been subjected to FGM.

FGM is also found in West African countries with non-Muslim majorities such as Benin (42% Christian, 24% Muslim, 17% "Voudoun"); Cameroon (40% "indigenous," or animist, in religion, 40% Christian, and 20% Muslim); and Ghana (71% Christian, only 17% Muslim, and 5% "traditional.") And in Africa they are not exceptions.

Nevertheless, because FGM is perceived as an "Islamic" problem, some responsibility for its abolition rests with the leaders of the worldwide Muslim community, or ummah. The struggle against FGM must be led by Muslims, to remove the stain of this ongoing scandal from our religion.

In Iraqi Kurdistan and elsewhere, Islamic scholars have argued over the legitimacy of FGM.

Even the notorious radical cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, although aligned with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, is well known for his 2006 fatwa warning that hadiths (oral commentaries of Muhammad) cited to support FGM are weak in their transmission by witnesses – the basis of hadith studies. Qaradawi pointed out that "women in Islamic nations lived for centuries without circumcision being a concern, as it did not exist." He admitted, however, that "it is happening today in countries like Egypt and a few other countries in the Arab world."

In 2011, according to the internationally-distributed Kurdish-language newspaper Rudaw, a distinguished Kurdish expert on Islamic law, Dr. Mustafa Zalmi, declared without hesitation that FGM is prohibited in Islam.

Zalmi earned his degree in Islamic jurisprudence from the renowned theological university of Al-Azhar in Cairo. He argued that as FGM is absent from Mecca and Medina, where the Islamic revelation was received and the early Muslim community was organized, there is no justification for its existence either there or in remote places such as Iraqi Kurdistan. He was supported, if only in spirit, in his stand against FGM, by Mullah Ahmed Shafi'i, a member of the KRG's Fatwa Committee.

The KRG passed legislation banning FGM, as a form of family violence, in August 2011. That measure was answered by the objections of a radical cleric in Erbil, Ismail Sussai, in an incoherent sermon, which declared FGM "obligatory" and called on KRG president Massoud Barzani not to sign the law forbidding it. Barzani, indeed, did not sign the bill, but allowed it to be published as a new regulation in the KRG Official Gazette. This created an ambiguous situation. Barzani and his supporters could claim the law was in effect, but his opponents among the extremist clerics could ignore it.

WADI states that the anti-FGM law in Iraqi Kurdistan has had a visible effect, and that the incidence of the procedure is declining. But critics of Barzani's government say that it has lagged behind in suppressing FGM.

On February 6, 2013 – the "International Day for Zero Tolerance of FGM" – an anti-FGM law covering the whole of Iraq was presented to the country's parliament, but without further action. As a precedent, on December 20, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly adopted unanimously a resolution calling for all countries to ban FGM. But like most UN activities, the resolution, which is not legally binding, was an empty gesture.

In September 2012, a year after the KRG published its ban on FGM, Reuters news agency distributed a substantial report from Tutakal, an obscure Kurdish village in Iraq, where FGM had been established for generations. Last year, apparently, the residents of Tutakal agreed to end the abuse of young girls that had been imposed on the pretexts of tradition and faith. Enhanced government services and the erection of small classrooms provided helpful incentives to arrive at this decision.

The Reuters account quoted Golchen Aubed, aged 50, who admitted that she had allowed her four daughters to be genitally mutilated, because of what Westerners might call "peer pressure." She said that if she had not done it, her neighbors would have wanted to know why.

But her son Lukman, who has a daughter free from FGM, has pledged that if he hears of anybody in the village carrying out such acts, he will report them to the police. In addition, Aubed said, she has a second son, with two daughters, who have also not been victims of FGM.

The main lesson from the village of Tutakal must be that while NGOs and international rhetoric may publicize the crime of FGM, it must be stopped where it takes place: in homes and communities. Reuters quoted the headman of Tutakal, Sarhad Ajeb, as he sat in the small local mosque. "We now feel the pain of the woman," he said. "The woman feels incomplete because when they do this, they cut a piece of flesh from a woman." Perhaps most importantly, he affirmed, "There is no mention of this practice in the holy Quran."

For moderate, conventional, traditional, and spiritual Muslims, that should settle the question of FGM. The suffering inflicted on young girls has no religious or medical justification, and should be wiped out wherever it is encountered.

Comment on this item

3 Reader Comments

chris • Oct 27, 2014 at 09:08

Female genital mutilation or female circumcision needs to be banned all over the globe. FGM is an abhorrent, cruel and vile action to forcibly take on any young female, no matter what their age. There is absolutely no reason for any child to be forcibly removed of her genitalia at all. Cutting a young child of 5-6yrs with a knife or razor to remove her genitals would be such a traumatic event it would affect her emotionally, mentally, psychologically and physically for the rest of her life and is domestic violence, against human rights and dispicable.

FGM is a form of domestic violence and in my country against the law.

Any person who performs FGM should be arrested and jailed for a very long time.

FGM is barbaric and needs to be banned by every government, every medical facility right across every country across the globe.

Even though it is against the quran, many Muslims have been taking their children to be forcibly put through the agony of FGM and if necessary to the offenders, taken the child overseas for this barbaric offence to be performed which has to be stopped. It is against the law in my country and should be against the law in every country and continent across the world. I am appalled and sickened that people actually treat children in such an offensive, sicking and barbaric way. Absolutely sick to my stomach.

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Wally • Mar 23, 2013 at 16:48

FGM is obligatory in the Shafi school of Sharia jurisprudence, acording to 'The Reliance of the Traveller' (Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband while Hanbalis consider it not obligatory but sunna). There is one hadith where Mohammed appears to approve of it, if not too severe, while in some other hadiths it is assumed that has taken place. A glance at the map on the Wikipedia page about FGM shows that the countries with the highest proportions of the female population who have suffered it are Egypt, Sudan, and Somalia.

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Iftikhar Ahmad • Mar 22, 2013 at 16:43

FGM has nothing to do with Islam. It was a common practice even before the advent of Islam in Africa and in some tribes in the Middle East. What's the point of the legal age being 16 when you are being taught at school that it's ok as long as you practice safe sex? Nothing about love, respect, serious relationships, or more importantly abstinence! Oh, and something needs to be done about boys, too! Girls can't be the only ones responsible for resisting pressure you know. More sex education in schools = more teenage pregnancies = more abortions. One of the problems is that now in schools we are taught safe sex at an early age, and not abstinence. The message was basically that sex at a young age is fine as long as it's practiced safely. It should be taught that at such a young age, neither protected or unprotected sex is ok. The message is simply not clear enough.

The rising numbers of girls having under-age sex is alarming. It is not a cost-free phenomenon. It poses public health policy challenges and social challenges. The underlying cause must be the pornification of British culture and the increasing sexualisation of pre-adolescent girls. Sex education in many schools has had the effect of breaking down the natural inhibitions of children with regard to sexual conduct, and the age of consent is rarely enforced, so young people no longer have any fear of legal proceedings. On top of that, the ready availability of contraception means that a girl's fear of pregnancy is no longer considered a good enough reason for rejecting her boyfriend's advances, and confidentiality policies mean that a girl need not worry about what her parents would think about her being sexually active, obtaining contraception, being treated for a sexually transmitted infection or even having an abortion, because they don't have to be told.

Although Britain's teenage pregnancy rates have recently started to fall, they still remain among the highest in Europe. In 2009, there were 38,259 pregnancies in girls under 18 compared with 41,361 in 2008, a decline of 7.5 percent. Every year around 3,700 girls under 16 have an abortion. There is concern that society is becoming increasingly 'sexualised.' When children are taught at age 8-10 that sex is a fun thing that two people do when they "love" each other, what do we expect?! And if the sex education people in schools have their way this will continue to rise.

This message is to all the girls who think its ok to sleep around, have one night stands and think…. do I really need to be used as a public toilet, letting men dump their load and zip up without saying thanks? Please have some respect for yourself and buck up your morals. It's degrading, end of conversation.

As a father or mother it is my duty to teach the sacred nature of chastity. Promiscuity will be the downfall of our nation. There is nothing of greater worth than the chastity of a man or woman. Bring back and encourage virtue into our homes and we will bring back honour and integrity (also less pressure on STD clinics which are rife with appointments each day). Male circumcision — a medical procedure in both Judaism and Islam that has nothing to do with female genital mutilation or "female circumcision," which is not required by the Quran, and which has no medical benefits, only medical liabilities — could well be the latest victim of misguided political correctness, despite massive medical evidence that male circumcision is "cleaner," meaning that the area involved becomes less prone to harbouring infections and transmitting diseases. British establishment and society should concentrate on the evils of their own society and stop trying to change the way of life of Muslims. The Muslim community does not want to integrate with the British society, indulging in incivility, anti-social behaviour, drug and knife culture, binge drinking, teenage pregnancies, and abortion. Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.

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